This city is absolutely stunning. We are blown away at the beauty and history of the buildings. We took advantage of the “free” walking tours on our first day. We got to grasp the lay of the land and figure out our way around – so many stairs! We thought we’d have a hard time understanding the Scots but they’re actually really easy to understand – the only person that stumped us was the Glaswegian border guard when we landed, talk about immersion!

We visited Edinburgh Castle on our second day, it was much smaller than we anticipated but it was nice to see the Scottish crown jewels. We also visited Elephant House, a coffee shop where J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter and the cemetery that inspired many Harry Potter names, Blackfriars. We visited St. Giles Cathedral and took a break in the tucked away poet’s museum. We went to visit the famed haunted Vaults, although they were less scary than we thought. We spent some time on the Royal Mile. We also made it a point to try Haggis, a traditional Scottish dish, and it was delicious! We also ate Shepherd’s Pie.

In terms of weather, Edinburgh was very windy but nothing we couldn’t handle. We were very lucky to have sunny, beautiful days. It only started raining the last morning we were there, which is when we once again tetris’ed our belongings in the back of our car and took the journey home.

“I’ve been dreaming of things yet to come
Living, learning, watching, burning
Eyes on the sun
I’m leaving, gone yesterday…
A new day, a new age…a new me, a new you”
– Bright Lights by Thirty Seconds to Mars

What a journey! Somewhere on the international date line we’ve lost a full 24 hours. We left Vancouver October 21 at 8am and arrived in our new home, the UK, at 8am Oct 22. Our adventure begins. We managed to make the journey with only 6 pieces of luggage, 2 of which are Chris’ computer and monitor. We avoided the elusive jetlag by staying up as long as we could and fighting the urge to rest when we arrived. It had been 2 solid days of not sleeping on a bed. The night before we left we slept on a terrible air mattress, and the night of our departure we didn’t sleep at all. Today, we begin our journey. We’ll start off as tourists in Edinburgh, Scotland for a few days before we head to our new home in London. The strangest part so far has been seeing the cars driving on the left as our plane was landing in Glasgow. We tetris’ed our belongings into our car and off to Edinburgh we go!

A Little Inspiration from Ratatouille:“Remy: …you’re telling me, that the future is – can *only* be – more of *this*?Django: This is the way things are. You can’t change nature.Remy: Change *is* nature, Dad. The part that *we* can influence. And it starts when we decide.[he turns to leave]Django: Where are you going?Remy: With luck, forward.”

What started off as a crazy idea has now become reality. There are many things we’ll miss about Vancouver including the comforts of having family close by, the beautiful mountains, and all our favourite spots. We have been diligently cleaning and getting our belongings ready for storage. We are under the assumption that we will be back in 2 years but the truth is that we simply don’t know. A few years ago we downsized from a 2 bed/2 bath 1300 sf apartment to a 1bed/1bath 650 sf apartment, and now, we’re going even smaller with only a 5×10 storage unit at our disposal. We’ve said our goodbyes to our vehicle, we won’t know the comfort of owning a vehicle again for a few years. And with all the support in the world, we’re ready. We’ve left behind stable jobs, a comfortable home, our vehicle, but most importantly, our families, friends, and our pup, Roxie, to pursue adventure. With all the luck and strength in the world we can only hope to succeed, but if we don’t, it will make for a great story one day….”remember that time we left everything behind and moved to Europe?”

Saving goodbye to our families at this very gate at the Vancouver airport

Flying over Richmond, last time for a little while

Our last goodie bag pick up at the Halifax airport before leaving Canadian soil

“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.” – Saint Augustine

Sometimes travel can be as close as in your own back yard. Today we went to Queen Elizabeth Park in our home town of Vancouver, B.C.,
a location that I have not had the privilege of visiting in my 28 years living here. It is still one of the most well kept (not to mention cost-free) gardens to visit in the city, and during the summer can really be breathtaking.

Even Roxie seemed to enjoy howling at the children playing in the field above the duck pond, although I feel that all she wanted to do was be one of them.

About Us

The Long Detour is a story about 2 young professionals embarking on their biggest adventure in hopes of reaching their personal and professional goals.
This blog will share our milestones and achievements, as well as our trials and tribulations. We will share visual content, reflections, lessons learned, and suggestions for anyone looking to make a similar change.
We’re excited to share our experience moving and living across the pond and hope our journey inspires others to take a chance and make the leap into the unknown.
Join us in what we call: The Long Detour.